Plastics materials have been used widely throughout the furniture industry for many years whether it be in the form of, for example, the flexible plastics sheet upholstery covers or stuffed flexible plastic foam upholstery filling of sofa suites, the substantially rigid mouldings of diner or patio plastics chairs or the completely rigid hard plastics tops of patio tables.
One area, however, of the furniture industry that has not previously significantly benefited from the range of plastics materials currently available is the manufacture of heavily ornamented or embossed designer furniture.
Existing materials and techniques of forming substantially rigid plastics articles do not allow for efficient economical manufacture of products that have an ornate embossed appearance and the furniture industry has, therefore, largely ignored use of plastics materials for this purpose. Injection moulding, the commonest method for forming thermoplastic articles, does not allow for low cost large scale (high production rate) manufacture of sizeable ornamented plastics articles.
It is, therefore, a general objective of the present invention to provide a method of forming plastics materials to provide them with a relatively ornate, embossed appearance and in an efficient, cost effective manner.